SECOND UPDATE: Confirmed by Deadline.
UPDATED: Netflix told me via email that there are inaccuracies in the story. I’ll be speaking to them on the phone, within the hour, and will hopefully get to the bottom of this.
EARLIER: This past March, Adam McKay was pitching a political satire to studios. The film, titled “Average Height, Average Build”, was said to be about a serial killer who gets into politics to change the laws to be more murder-friendly.
McKay’s film is supposed to star Robert Pattinson, Robert Downey, Jr. Amy Adams, Forrest Whitaker, and Danielle Deadwyle. The budget was said to be very high ($150M+), which had some studios balking at the idea of getting behind it.
In April, Netflix bought the rights to the film. They were also behind McKay’s highly popular “Don’t Look Up” in 2021. I’m now hearing, via an in-the-know friend, that Netflix has dropped the project and that it is currently seeking a new home.
Despite his last three films having been showered with Oscar love (“The Big Short,” “Vice” and “Don’t Look Up”) this latest McKay still constitutes a risk for any studio to embark on. It doesn’t sound audience-friendly, which is maybe why studios keep balking at it.
“Don’t Look Up”, which had Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence trying to stop an asteroid, was, at the time of its release, Netflix’s second most-watched movie of all time, with 360 million hours viewed. Not even those numbers could get Netflix on board McKay’s latest.
McKay was one of the originators of the frat comedy movement in the early aughts with “Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights,” “Step Brothers,” and “The Other Guys,” before deciding to go to a more serious route with his last three features.
I’m now wondering if this new film of his is not happening, or if an adventurous studio will decide to pick it up. Maybe he should adjust that budget — $150 million is a ridiculous amount of money for a non-IP project.